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UN chief deplores suicide attack in Pakistan

19 August 2011 20:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon Friday condemned in the strongest terms the suicide attack at a mosque during Friday prayers in north-west Pakistan where at least 50 were reportedly killed and over 100 injured, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The Secretary-General is appalled at this deliberate attack at a place of worship during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the reported use of a teenager to perpetrate the attack," said a statement read out by Ban’s spokesperson Farhan Haq.

"The United Nations continues to stand by Pakistan in its efforts to combat the scourge of terrorism," Haq told a daily noon briefing.

The secretary-general also extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the government of Pakistan.

According to local Urdu TV channel Express, the blast took place at about 2 p.m. local time Friday when a teenager suicide bomber aged about 16 blew himself up in a mosque at the Ghondi area of Jamrud, a district in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of Khyber Agency which borders Afghanistan.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Friday’s suicide blast is one of the most serious terrorist attacks in Pakistan since the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by the U.S. special forces in the country’s northwest city of Abbottabad on May 2.